• Measure the relative levels of endothelial progenitors (EPCs) derived from cultured mononuclear cells in patients and carefully matched healthy subjects at day 0 and after 6 months later (number of endothelial cells colony forming units). [ Time Frame: at day 0 and 6 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

• Comparison of the number of circulating EPCs and CECs by FACS. The blood mononuclear cell fraction are depleted from all the haematopoietic cells using a depletion magnetic bead column. The lineage minus population is then subjected to a triple labelling [ Time Frame: at day 1 and at 6 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  
• Correlations tests will be performed between these markers and markers of clinical severity (retinopathy, leg ulcers, number of vaso-occlusive events in the past year, microalbuminuria, leukocyte count, HbF level). [ Time Frame: at day 1 and 6 months ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  

In the bone marrow, a reservoir of EPCs does exist, which can be mobilized into circulation when needed, for example during ischemia, a situation which may occur in sickle cells disease. These cells are able to reach distant targets and to participate to the neovascularisation processes necessary for tissue and vascular healing. Conversely, abnormalities of the maturation, mobilization or homing processes would contribute to the thrombotic and ischemic risks associated to ischemia. Furthermore, vascular stress such that encountered in SCD leads to the detachment of endothelial cells from the vessels. The number of detached mature circulating endothelial cells (CEC) seems to be related to vascular hurting. The balance between EPCs and CECs would thus be informative of the vascular condition in patients during the progression of the disease. A relatively high level of EPCs would indicate a prominence of a healing neoangiogenesis or vasculogenesis process, while increasing levels of CECs would be indicative severe progression of the disease. Our studies and those published by others indicate that the number of EPCs in peripheral blood is tightly regulated. Indeed, mediators of inflammation could participate to EPC mobilization and to their recruitment to the diseased areas by local activation of the vascular endothelium. In this context, sickle cells disease provokes transient occlusion episodes, leading to a situation of chronic ischemia in different organs, sometimes with acute episodes. This suggests defect of the maintenance of the vascular integrity in these target organs.Within this project, we will compare the number of EPCs and CECs in 25 SCD patients and 25 normal individuals in search of a correlation with the severity of the disease. SCD patients with potential confounding factors that may alter endothelial physiology (drugs, blood transfusions, hydroxyurea therapy) are excluded. In addition, we will analyse and compare in culture and in vivo the phenotypic and functional characteristics of EPCs obtained from patients and controls. We have a working bilateral hypothesis, since we do not know whether SCD subjects have appropriate angiogenic balance (high EPCs/CEC ratio with functional EPCs) to face the situation of endothelial activation and tissue hypoxia induced by SCD. Therefore, we will quantitatively and qualitatively study several distinct biological steps:1. Evaluate the number of colonies generated by the EPCs in culture and their kinetics of appearance in patients (major end point)2. Enumerate EPCs and CECs by flow cytometry using a specific set of markers (CD133, CD146, KDR).3. Measure of the plasma concentrations of PlGF, VEGF, EPO, ET-1, modulators of angiogenesis.4. Test of correlations between these respective characteristics of EPCs with clinical vascular abnormalities of the disease (retinopathy assessed by angiography, nephropathy, leg ulcers) and severity of vaso-occlusive crisis assessed by number and length of hospitalizations during the previous year and during the study.